ADDRESS 



GEORGE LINCOLN GOOD ALE, 



PRESIDENT 



American Association for the Advancement of Science. 



DELIVERED AT THE 

WASHINGTON MEETING, 

AUGUST, 1891. 



ALEM PRESS PUBLISHING AND PRINTING CO. 
1891. 



ADDRESS 



GEORGE LINCOLN GOODALE, 



PRE8IDEN T 



OP THE 



American Association for the Advancement of Science. 



DEL1VEKED AT THE 

WASHINQTON MEETING-, 

AUGUST, 1891. 



SALEM PRESS PUBLISHING AND PRINTING CO. 

1891. 



of? ^ 



p. 
rj S.Geol Survey 



2lF'03 



ADDRESS 



BY 



GEORGE LINCOLN GOODALE. 



USEFUL PLANTS OF THE FUTURE. — SOME OF THE POSSI- 
BILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



Our Association demands of its president, on his retirement from 
office, some account of matters connected with the department of 
science in which he is engaged. 

But you will naturally expect that, before I enter upon the dis- 
charge of this duty, I should present a report respecting the mis- 
sion with which you entrusted me last year. You desired me to 
attend the annual meeting of the Australasian Association for the 
Advancement of Science, and express your good wishes for its 
success. Compliance with your request did not necessitate any 
material change in plans formed long ago to visit the South Seas ; 
some of the dates and the sequence of places had to be modified ; 
otherwise the early plans were fully carried out. 

I can assure you that it seemed very strange to reverse the sea- 
sons, and find mid-summer in January. But in the meeting with 
our brethren of the southern hemisphere, nothing else was reversed. 
The official welcome to your representative was as cordial, and the 
response by the members was as kindly as that which the people 
in the northern hemisphere would give to any fellow-worker com- 
ing from beyond the sea: 

The meeting to which I was commissioned was held in January 
last in the Cathedral city of Christchurch, New Zealand, the seat 
of Canterbury College. 

Considering the distance between the other colonies and New 
Zealand, the meeting was well attended. From Hobart, Tasmania, 

(1) 



2 ADDRESS BY 

to the southern harbor, known as the Bluff, in New Zealand, the 
sea voyage is only a little short of one thousand miles of rough 
water. From Sydney in New South Wales to Auckland, New 
Zealand, it is over twelve hundred miles. If, therefore, one jour- 
neys from Adelaide in South Australia, to Christchurch, New Zea- 
land, where the meeting was held, he travels by land and by sea 
over two thousand miles. From Brisbane in Queensland, it is some- 
what farther. Although certain concessions are made to the mem- 
bers of the Association, the fares by rail and by steamship are high, 
so that a journey from any one of the seats of learning in Australia 
proper to New Zealand is formidable on account of its cost. It is 
remarkable that so large a number of members should have met 
together under such circumstances, and it speaks well for the great 
strength and vigor of the Association. 

The Australasian Association is modelled rather more closely 
after the British Association than is our own. The president de- 
livers his address upon his inauguration. There are no general 
business meetings, but all the details are attended to by an execu- 
tive committee answering to our council ; none except the members 
and associates are invited to attend even the sectional meetings 
and there are some other differences between the three associations. 
The secretaries stated to me their conviction that their organiza- 
tion and methods are better adapted to their surroundings than 
ours would be, and all of their arguments seemed cogent. Although 
the Association has been in existence but three years, it has ac- 
complished great good. It has brought together workers in differ- 
ent fields for conference and mutual benefit ; it has diminished mis- 
understandings, and has strengthened friendships. In short, it is 
doing the same kind of good work that we believe ours is now do- 
ing, and iu much the same way. 

Your message was delivered at the general evening session im- 
mediately before the induction of the new officers . The retiring 
president, Baron von Mueller, and the incoming president Sir James 
Hector, in welcoming your representative, expressed their pleasure 
that you should have seen fit to send personal greetings. 

In replying to their welcome, I endeavored to convey your felic- 
itations upon the pronounced success of the Association, and your 
best wishes for a prosperous future. In your name, I extended a 
cordial invitation to the members to gratify us by their presence at 
some of our annual meetings, and I have good reasons to believe 



GEORGE LINCOLN GOODALE. 3 

that this invitation will be accepted. I know it will be most thorough- 
ly and hospitably honored by us. 

On the morning of the session to which I refer, we received in 
the daily papers, a cable telegram relative to the Bering Sea diffi- 
culties (which were then in an acute stage) . In your stead, I ven- 
tured to say, "In these days of disquieting despatches, when there 
are rumors of trouble between Great Britain and the United States, 
it is pleasant to think that 'blood is thicker than water.' " This 
utterance was taken to mean that we are all English-speaking kins- 
men ; and even before I had finished, the old proverb was received 
with prolonged applause. 

The next meeting of. the Australasian Association is to be held 
in Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, under the presidency of the 
governor, Sir Robert Hamilton. The energetic secretaries Pro- 
fessor Liversidge, Professor Hutton and Mr. Morton, promise a 
cordial welcome to any of our members visiting the Association. 
Should you accept the invitation, you will enjoy every feature of 
the remarkable island, Tasmania, where the meeting is to be held. 
You will be delighted by Tasmanian scenery, vegetation and cli- 
mate, but that which will give you the greatest enjoyment in this 
as in other English South-Sea colonies, is the fact that you are 
among English-speaking friends half way round the world. You 
will find that their efficient Association is devoted to the advance- 
ment of science and the promotion of sound learning. In short 
you will be made to feel at home. 

The subject which I have selected for the valedictory address 
deals with certain industrial, commercial and economic questions : 
nevertheless it lies wholly within the domain of botany. I invite 
you to examine with me some of the possibilities of economic bot- 
any. 

Of course, when treating a topic which is so largely speculative 
as this, it is difficult and unwise to draw a hard and fast line be- 
tween possibilities and probabilities. Nowadays, possibilities are 
so often realized rapidly that they become accomplished facts be- 
fore we are aware. 

In asking what are the possibilities that other plants than those 
we now use may be utilized we enter upon a many-sided inquiry. * 
Speculation is rife as to the coming man. May we not ask what 
plants the coming man will use. 

There is an enormous disproportion between the total number of 

*For references, notes, etc., see p. 33. 



4 ADDRESS BY 

species of plants known to botanical science and the number of 
those which are employed by man. 

The species of flowering plants already described and named are 
about one hundred and seven thousand. Acquisitions from unex- 
plored or imperfectly explored regions may increase the aggregate 
perhaps one-tenth, so that we are within very safe limits in tak- 
ing the number of existing species to be somewhat above one hun- 
dred and ten thousand. 1 

Now if we should make a comprehensive list of all the flowering 
plants which are cultivated on what we may call a fairly large 
scale at the present day, placing therein all food 2 and forage plants, 
all those which are grown for timber and cabinet woods, for fibers 
and cordage, for tanning materials, dyes, resins, rubber, gums, 
oils, perfumes and medicines, we could bring together barely 
three hundred species. If we should add to this short cata- 
logue all the species, which, without cultivation, can be used by 
man, we should find it considerably lengthened. A great many 
products of the classes just referred to are derived in commerce 
from wild plants, but exactly how much their addition would ex- 
tend the list, it is impossible in the present state of knowledge to 
determine. Every enumeration of this character is likely to con- 
tain errors from two sources : first, it would be sure to contain some 
species which have outlived their real usefulness, and, secondly, 
owing to the chaotic condition of the literature of the subject, 
omissions would occur. 

But after all proper exclusions and additions have been made, 
the total number of species of flowering plants utilized to any con- 
siderable extent by man in his civilized state does not exceed, in 
fact it does not quite reach, one per cent. 

The disproportion between the plants which are known and those 
which are used becomes much greater when we take into account 
the species of flowerless plants also Of the five hundred ferns 
and their allies we employ for other than decorative purposes only 
five ; the mosses and liverworts, roughly estimated at five hundred 
species, have only four which are directly used by man. There 
•are comparatively few algae, fungi, or lichens which have ex- 
tended use. 

Therefore, when we take the flowering and flowerless together, 
the percentage of utilized plants falls far below the estimate made 
for the flowering alone. 

Such a ratio between the number of species known and the num- 



GEORGE LINCOLN GOOD ALE. 

ber used justifies the inquiry which I have proposed for discussion 
at this time — namely, can the short list of useful plants be increased 
to advantage? If so, how? 

This is a practical question ; it is likewise a very old one. In 
one form or another, by one people or another, it has been asked 
from early times. In the dawn of civilization, mankind inherited 
from savage ancestors certain plants, which had been found amen- 
able to simple cultivation, and the products of these plants sup- 
plemented the spoils of the chase and of the sea. The question 
which we ask now was asked then. Wild plants were examined 
for new uses ; primitive agriculture and horticulture extended their 
bounds in answer to this inquiry. Age after age has added slow- 
ly and cautiously to the list of cultivable and utilizable plants, but 
the aggregate additions have been, as we have seen, comparatively 
slight. 

The question has thus no charm of novelty, but it is as practical 
to-day as in early ages. In fact, at the present time, in view of 
all the appliances at the command of modern science and under the 
strong light cast by recent biological and technological research, 
the inquiry which we propose assumes great importance. One 
phase of it is being attentively and systematically regarded in the 
great experiment stations, another phase is being studied in the 
laboratories of Chemistry and Pharmacy, while still another pre- 
sents itself in the museums of Economic Botany. 

Our question may be put in other words, which are even more 
practical. What present likelihood is there that our tables may, 
one of these days, have other vegetables, fruits and cereals, than 
those which we now use ? What cha'nce is there that new fibers may 
supplement or even replace those which we spin and weave, that 
woven fabrics may take on new vegetable colors, that flowers and 
leaves may yield new perfumes and flavors ? What probability is 
there that new remedial agents may be found among plants neg- 
lected or wholly unknown? The answer which I shall attempt is 
not in the nature of a prophecy ; it can claim no rank higher than 
that of a reasonable conjecture. 

At the outset it must be said that synthetic chemistry has made 
and is making some exceedingly short cuts across this field of re- 
search, giving us artificial dyes, odors, flavors and medicinal sub- 
stances, of such excellence that it sometimes seems as if before 
long the old-fashioned chemical processes in the plant itself would 



6 ADDRESS BY 

play only a subordinate part. But although there is no telling 
where the triumphs of chemical synthesis will end, it is not proba- 
ble that it will ever interfere essentially with certain classes of eco- 
nomic plants. It is impossible to conceive of a synthetic fiber or a 
synthetic fruit. Chemistry gives us fruit-ethers and fruit-acids, and 
after a while may provide us with a true artificial sugar and amor- 
phous starch ; but artificial fruits worth the eating or artificial fibers 
worth the spinning are not coming in our clay. 

Despite the extraordinary achievements of synthetic chemistry, 
the world must be content to accept for a long time to come the 
results of the intelligent labor of the cultivator of the soil and the 
explorer of the forest. Improvement of the good plants we now 
utilize, and the discovery of new ones must remain the care of large 
numbers of diligent students and assiduous workmen. So that, in 
fact, our question resolves itself into this : can these practical in- 
vestigators hope to make any substantial advance ? 

It will be well to glance first at the manner in which our wild 
and cultivated plants have been singled out for use. We shall,. in 
the case of each class, allude to the methods by which the selected 
plants have been improved, or their products fully utilized. Thus 
looking the ground over, although not minutely, we can see what 
new plants are likely to be added to our list. Our illustrations can, 
at the best, be only fragmentary. 

We shall not have time to treat the different divisions of the sub- 
ject in precisely the proportions which would be demanded by an 
exhaustive essay ; an address on an occasion like this must pass 
lightly over some matters which other opportunities for discussion 
could properly examine with great fulness. Unfortunately, some 
of the minor topics which must be thus passed by, possess consid- 
erable popular interest ; one of these is the first subordinate ques- 
tion introductory to our task, namely, how were our useful culti- 
vated and wild plants selected for use ?. 

A study of the early history of plants employed for ceremonial 
purposes, in religious solemnities,, in incantations, and for me- 
dicinal uses, shows how slender has sometimes been the claim 
of certain plants to the possession of any real utility. But some 
of the plants which have been brought to notice in these ways have 
afterwards been found to be utilizable in some fashion or other. 
This is often seen in the cases of the plants which have been sug- 
gested for medicinal use through the absurd doctrine of signatures. 3 



GEORGE LINCOLN GOODALE. t 

It seems clear that, except in modern times, useful plants have 
been selected almost wholly by chance, and it may well be said 
that a selection by accident is no selection at all. Nowadays, the 
new selections are based on analogy. One of the most striking 
illustrations of the modern method is afforded by the utilization of 
bamboo fiber for electric lamps. 

Some of the classes of useful plants must be passed by without 
present discussion ; others alluded to slightly, while still other 
groups fairly. representative of selection and improvement will be 
more fully described. In this latter class would naturally come, 
of course, the food-plants known as 

I. THE CEREALS. 

Let us look first at these. 

The species of grasses which yield these seed-like fruits, or as 
we might call them for our purpose seeds, are numerous ; 4 twenty 
of them are cultivated largely in the Old World, but only six of 
them are likely to be very familiar to you, namely, wheat, rice, 
barley, oats, rye and maize. The last of these is of American ori- 
gin, despite doubts which have been cast upon it. It was not known 
in the Old World until after the discovery of the New. It has 
probably been very long in cultivation. The others all belong to 
the Old World. Wheat and barley have been cultivated from the 
earliest times ; according to De Candolle, the chief authority in 
these matters, about four thousand years. Later came rye and 
oats, both of which have been known in cultivation for at least two 
thousand years. Even the shorter of these periods gives time 
enough for wide variation, and as is to be expected there are nu- 
merous varieties of them all. For instance, Vilmorin, in 1880, 
figured sixty-six varieties of wheat with plainly distinguishable 
characters. 5 

If the Chinese records are to be trusted, rice has been cultivated 
for a period much longer than that assigned by our history and 
traditions to the other cereals, and the varieties are correspond- 
ingly numerous. It is said that in Japan above three hundred 
varieties are grown on irrigated lands, and more than one hundred 
on uplands. 6 

With the possible exception of rice, not one of the species of 
cereals is certainly known in the wild state. 7 Now and then speci- 
mens have been gathered in the East which can be referred to the 



8 ADDRESS BY 

probable types from which our varieties have sprung, but doubt 
has been thrown upon every one of these cases. It has been shown 
conclusively that it is easy for a plant to escape from cultivation 
and persist in its new home even for a long time in a near approx- 
imation to cultivated form. Hence, we are forced to receive all 
statements regarding the wild forms with caution. But it may be 
safely said that if all the varieties of cereals which we now culti- 
vate were to be swept out of existence, we could hardly know where 
to turn for wild species with which to begin again. We could not 
know with certainty. 

To bring this fact a little more vividly to our minds, let us sup- 
pose a case. Let us imagine that a blight without parallel has 
brought to extinction all the forms of wheat, rice, rye, oats, bar- 
ley and maize, now in cultivation, but without affecting the other 
grasses or any other form of vegetable food. Mankind would be 
obliged to subsist upon the other kindly fruits of the earth ; upon 
root-crops, tubers, leguminous seeds, and so on. Some of the sub- 
stitutions might be amusing in any other time than that of a threat- 
ened famine. Others would be far from appetizing under any con- 
dition, and only a few would be wholly satisfying even to the most 
pronounced vegetarian. In short, it would seem, from the first, 
that the cereals fill a place occupied by no other plants. The 
composition of the grains is theoretically and practically almost 
perfect as regards food ratio between the nitrogenous matters 
and the starch group ; and the food value, as it is termed, is high. 
But aside from these considerations, it would be seen that for safe- 
ty of perservation through considerable periods, and for convenience 
of transportation, the cereals take highest rank. Pressure would 
come from every side to compel us to find equivalents for the lost 
grains. From this predicament I believe that the well-equipped 
experiment stations and the agricultural departments in Europe 
and America would by and by extricate us. Continuing this hy- 
pothetical case, let us next inquire how the stations would proba- 
bly go to work in the up-hill task of making partially good a well- 
nigh irreparable loss. 

The whole group of relatives of the lost cereals would be passed 
in strict review. Size of grain, strength and vigor and plasticity 
ot stock, adaptability to different surroundings, and flexibility in 
variation would be examined with scrupulous care. 

But the range of experiment would, under the circumstances, 



GEORGE LINCOLN GOODALE. 9 

extend far beyond the l-elatives of our present cereals. It would 
embrace an examination of the other grasses which are even now 
cultivated for their grains, but which are so little known outside of 
their own limit, that it is a surprise to hear about them. For ex- 
ample, the millets, great and small would be investigated. These 
grains, so little known here, form an important crop in certain 
parts of the east. One of the leading authorities on the subject 8 
states that the millets constitute "a more important crop" in India 
"than either Rice or Wheat, and are grown more extensively, be- 
ing raised from Madras in the south to Rojputana in the north. 
They occupy about eighty-three per cent of the food-grain area in 
Bombay and Sinde, forty-one per cent in the Punjab, thirty-nine 
per cent in the Central Provinces," "in all about thirty million 
acres." 

Having chosen proper subjects for experimenting, the cultiva- 
tors would make use of certain well-known principles. By simple 
selection of the more desirable seeds, strains would be secured to 
suit definite wants, and these strains would be kept as races, or 
attempts would be made to intensifj 7 - wished-for characters. By 
skilful hybridizing of the first, second and higher orders, tenden- 
cies to wider variation would be obtained and the process of se- 
lection considerably expedited. 9 

It is out of our power to predict how much time would elapse 
before satisfactory substitutes for our cereals could be found. In 
the improvement of the grains of grasses other than those which 
have been very long under cultivation, experiments have been few, 
scattered and indecisive. Therefore we are as badly off for time- 
ratios as are the geologists and archseologists in their statements 
of elapsed periods. It is impossible for us to ignore the fact that 
there appear to be occasions in the life of a species when it seems 
to be peculiarly susceptible to the influences of its surroundings. 10 
A species, like a carefully laden ship, represents a balancing of 
forces within and without. Disturbance may come throuo-h va- 
riation from within, as from a shifting of the cargo, or, in some 
cases from without. We may suppose both forces to be active in 
producing variation, a change in the internal condition rendering 
the plant more susceptible to any change in its surroundings. Under 
the influence of any marked disturbance, a state of unstable equili- 
brium may be brought about, at which times the species as such is 
easily acted upon by very slight agencies. 



10 ADDRESS BY 

One of the most marked of these derangements is a consequent 
of cross-breeding within the extreme limits of varieties. The re- 
sultant forms in such cases can persist only by close breeding or 
propagation from buds or the equivalents of buds. Disturbances 
like these arise unexpectedly in the ordinary course of nature, giv- 
ing us sports of various kinds. These critical periods, however, 
are not unwelcome, since skilful cultivators can take advantage of 
them. In this very field much has been accomplished. An atten- 
tive study of the sagacious work done by Thomas Andrew Knight 
shows to what extent this can be done. 11 But we must confess 
that it would be absolutely impossible to predict with certainty 
how long or how short would be the time before new cereals or ac- 
ceptable equivalents for them would be provided. Upheld by the 
confidence which I have in the intelligence, ingenuity, and energy 
of our experiment stations, I may say that the time would not 
probably exceed that of two generations of our race, or hall a cen- 
tury. 

In now laying aside our hypothetical illustration, I venture to 
ask why it is that our experiment stations and other institutions 
dealing with plants and their improvement, do not undertake in- 
vestigations like those which I have sketched. Why are not some 
of the grasses other than our present cereals studied with refer- 
ence to their adoption as food grains? One of these species will 
naturally suggest itself to you all, namely, the Wild Rice of the 
Lakes. 12 Observations have shown that, were it not for the diffi- 
culty of harvesting these grains which fall too easily when they are 
ripe, they might be utilized. But attentive search might find or 
educe some variety of Zizania, with a more persistent grain and a 
better yield. There are two of our sea-shore grasses which have 
excellent grains, but are of small yield. Why are not these, or 
better ones which might be suggested by observation, taken in 
hand? 

The reason is plain. We are all content to move along in lines 
of least resistance, and are disinclined to make a fresh start. It 
is merely leaving well enough alone, and so far as the cereals are 
concerned it is indeed well enough. The generous grains of mod- 
ern varieties of wheat and barley compared with the well preserved 
charred vestiges found in Greece by Schliemann, 13 and in the lake- 
dwellings, 14 are satisfactory in every respect. Improvements, 
however, are making in many directions ; and in the cereals we now 



GEORGE LINCOLN GOOD ALE. 11 

have, we possess far better and more satisfactory material for 
further improvement both in quality and as regards range of dis- 
tribution than we could reasonably hope to have from other grasses. 
From the cereals we may turn to the interesting groups of plants 
comprised under the general term 

II. VEGETABLES. 

Under this term it will be convenient for us to include all plants 
which are employed for culinary purposes, or for table use such as 
salads and relishes. 

The potato and sweet potato, the pumpkin and squash, the red 
or capsicum peppers, and the tomato, are of American origin. 

All the others are, most probably, natives of the Old World. 
Only one plant coming in this class has been derived from South- 
ern Australasia, namely, New Zealand Spinach (Tetragonia) . 

Among the vegetables and salad-plants longest in cultivation 
we may enumerate the following — turnip, onion, cabbage, purslane, 
the large bean (Faba), chick-pea, lentil and one species of pea, 
garden pea. To these an antiquity of at least four thousand years 
is ascribed. 

Next to these, in point of age, come the radish, carrot, beet, 
garlic, garden-cress, and celery, lettuce, asparagus and the leek. 
Three or four leguminous seeds are to be placed in the same cate- 
gory, as are also the black peppers. 

Of more recent introduction the most prominent are, the parsnip, 
oyster plant, parsley, artichoke, endive and spinach. 

From these lists I have purposely omitted a few which belong 
exclusively to the tropics, such as certain yams. 

The number of varieties of these vegetables is astounding. It 
is, of course, impossible to discriminate between closely allied 
varieties which have been introduced by gardeners and seedsmen 
under different names, but which are essentially identical, and we 
must therefore have recourse to a conservative authority, Vilmorin, 15 
from whose work a few examples have been selected. The vari- 
eties which he accepts are sufficiently well distinguished to admit 
of description and in most instances of delineation, without any 
danger of confusion. The potato has, he says, innumerable vari- 
eties, of which he accepts forty as easily distinguishable and worthy 
of a place in a general list, but he adds also a list, comprising, of 
course, synonyms, of thirty-two French, twenty-six English, nine- 
teen American and eighteen German varieties. The following 



12 ADDRESS BY 

numbers speak for themselves, all being selected in the same care- 
ful manner as those of the potato : celery more than twenty ; car- 
rot more than thirty ; beet, radish and potato more than forty ; 
lettuce and onion more than fifty ; turnip more than seventy ; cab- 
bage, kidney bean and garden pea each more than one hundred. 

The amount of horticultural work which these numbers repre- 
sent is enormous. Each variety established as a race (that is a 
variety which comes true to seed) has been evolved by the same 
sort of patient care and waiting which we have seen is necessary 
in the case of cereals but the time of waiting has not been as a 
general thing so long. 

You will permit me to quote from Vilmorin 16 also an account of 
a common plant, which will show how wide is the range of varia- 
tion and how obscure are the indications in the wild plant of its 
available possibilities. The example shows how completely hidden 
are the potential variations useful to mankind. 

"Cabbage, a plant which is indigenous in Europe and Western Asia, is 
one of the vegetables which has been cultivated from the earliest time. 
The ancients were well acquainted with it, and certainly possessed sever- 
al varieties of the head-forming kinds. The great antiquity of its culture 
may be inferred from the immense number of varieties which are now in 
existence, and from the very important modifications which have been 
produced in the characteristics in the original or parent plant. 

The wild Cabbage, such as it now exists on the coasts of England and 
France, is a perennial plant, with broad-lobed, undulated, thick, smooth 
leaves, covered with a glaucous bloom. The stem attains a height of from 
nearly two and a half to over three feet, and bears at the top a spike of 
yellow or sometimes white flowers. All the cultivated varieties present 
the same peculiarities in their inflorescence, but up to the time of flower- 
ing they exhibit most marked differences from each other and from the 
original wild plant. In most of the Cabbages, it is chiefly the leaves that 
are developed by cultivation ; these for the most part become imbricated 
or overlap one another closely, so as to form a more or less compact head, 
the heart or interior of which is composed of the central undeveloped 
shoot and the younger leaves next it. The shape of the head is spherical, 
sometimes flattened, sometimes conical. All the varieties which form 
heads in this way are known by the general name of Cabbages, while 
other kinds with large branching leaves which never form heads are dis- 
tinguished by the name of Borecole or Kale. 

In some kiuds, the flower-stems have been so modified by culture as to 
become transformed into a thick, fleshy tender mass, the growth and en- 
largement of which are produced at the expense of the flowers which are 
absorbed and rendered abortive. Such are the Broccolis and Cauliflowers.' 

But this plant has other transformations. 



GEORGE LINCOLN GOODALE. 13 

"la other kinds, the leaves retain their ordinary dimensions, while the 
stem or principal root has been brought by cultivation to assume the shape 
of a large ball or turnip, as in the case of the plants known as Kohl-Eabi 
and Turnip-rooted Cabbage or Swedish Turnip. And lastly, there are va- 
rieties in which cultivation and selection have produced modifications in 
the ribs of the leaves, as in the Couve Tronchuda, or in the axillary shoots 
(as in Brussels sprouts), or in several organs together, as in the Marrow 
Kales, and the Neapolitan Curled Kale." 

Here are important morphological changes like those to which 
Professor Bailey has called attention in the case of the tomato. 

Suppose we are strolling along the beach at some of the seaside 
resorts of France, and should fall in with this coarse cruciferous 
plant, with its sprawling leaves and strong odor. Would there be 
anything in its appearance to lead us to search for its hidden merit 
as a food plant ? What could we see in it which would give it a 
preference over a score of other plants at our feet ? Again, sup- 
pose we are journeying in the high lands of Peru, and should meet 
with a strong-smelling plant of the Night-shade family, bearing a 
small irregular fruit, of sub-acid taste and of peculiar flavor. We 
will further imagine that the peculiar taste strikes our fancy, and 
we conceive that the plant has possibilities as a source of food. 
We should be led by our knowledge of the potato, probably a na- 
tive of the same region, to think that this allied plant might be 
safely transferred to a northern climate, but would there be prom- 
ise of enough future usefulness in such a case as this, to warrant 
our carrying the plant North as an article of food? Suppose, 
further, we should ascertain that the fruit in question was relished 
not only by the natives of its home, but that it had found favor 
among the tribes of South Mexico and Central America, and had 
been cultivated by them until it had attained a large size ; should 
we be strengthened in our venture ? Let us go one step farther 
still. Suppose that having decided upon the introduction of the 
plant, and having urged everybody to try it, we should find it dis- 
carded as a fruit, but taking a place in gardens as a curiosity 
under an absurd name, or as a basis for preserves and pickles ; 
should we not look upon our experience in the introduction of 
this new plant as a failure? This is not an hypothetical case. 

The Tomato, 17 the plant in question, was cultivated in Europe 
as long ago as 1554 ; J8 it was known in Virginia in 1781 and in the 
Northern States in 1785 ; but it found its way into favor slowly, 
even in this land of its orio;in. A credible witness states that in 



14 ADDRESS BY 

Salem it was almost impossible to induce people to eat or even 
taste of the fruit. And yet, as you are well aware, its present 
cultivation on an enormous scale in Europe and this country is 
scarcely sufficient to meet the increasing demand. 

A plant which belongs to the family of the tomato has been 
known to the public under the name of the strawberry tomato. 
The juicy yellow or orange-colored fruit is enclosed in a papery 
calyx of large size. The descriptions which were published when 
the plant was placed on the market were attractive, and were not 
exaggerated to a misleading extent. But, as you all know, the 
plant never gained any popularity. If we look at these two cases 
carefully we shall see that what appears to be caprice on the part 
of the public is at bottom common sense. The cases illustrate as 
well as any which are at command, the difficulties which surround 
the whole subject of the introduction of new foods. 

Before asking specifically in what direction we shall look for new 
vegetables I must be pardoned for calling attention, in passing, 
to a very few of the many which are already in limited use in Eu- 
rope and this country, but which merit a wider employment. Car- 
don, or Cardoon; Celeriac, or turnip-rooted celery; Fetticus, or 
corn-salad ; Martynia ; Salsify ; Sea-kale ; and numerous small 
salads, are examples of neglected treasures of the vegetable gar- 
den. 

The following which are even less known may be mentioned as 
fairly promising. 19 

(1) Arracacia esculenta, called Arracacha, belonging to the 
Parsley family. It is extensively cultivated in some of the north- 
ern states of South America. The stems are swollen near the 
base, and produce tuberous enlargements filled with an excellent 
starch. Although the plant is of comparatively easy cultivation, 
efforts to introduce it into Europe have not been successful, but 
it is said to have found favor in both the Indies, and may prove 
useful in our Southern States. 

(2) Ullucus or Ollucus, another tuberous- rooted plant from 
nearly the same region, but belonging to the beet or spinach fam- 
ily. It has produced tubers of good size in England, but they are 
too waxy in consistence to dispute the place of the better tubers 
of the potato. The plant is worth investigating for our hot dry 
lands. 

(3) A tuber-bearing relative of our common Hedge-nettle, or 



GEORGE LINCOLN GOODALE. 15 

Stachys, is now cultivated on a large scale at Crosnes in France, 
for the Paris market. Its name in Paris is taken from the local- 
ity where it is now grown for use. Although its native country is 
Japan, it is called by some seedsmen Chinese Artichoke. At the 
present stage of cultivation, the tubers are small and are rather 
hard to keep, but it is thought "that both of these defects can be 
overcome or evaded." 21 Experiments indicate that we have in this 
species a valuable addition to our vegetables. We must next look 
at certain other neglected possibilities. 

Dr. Edward Palmer, 20 whose energy as a collector and acuteness 
as an observer are known to you all, has brought together very in- 
teresting facts relative to the food-plants of our North American 
aborigines. Among the plants described by him there are a few 
which merit careful investigation. Against all of them, however, 
there lie the objections mentioned before, namely : 

(1) The long time required for their improvement, and 

(2) The difficulty of making them acceptable to the community , 
involving 

(3) The risk of total and mortifying failure. 

In the notes to this address the more prominent of these are 
enumerated. 

In 1854 the late Professor Gray called attention to the remark- 
able relations which exist between the plants of Japan and those 
of our eastern coast. You will remember that he not only proved 
that the plants of the two regions had a common origin, but also 
emphasized the fact that many species of the two countries are al- 
most identical. It is to that country which has yielded us so many 
useful and beautiful plants that we turn for new vegetables to sup- 
plement our present food-resources. One of these plants, namely, 
Stachys, has already been mentioned as rather promising. There 
are others which are worth examination and perhaps acquisition. 

One of the most convenient places for a preliminary examination 
of the vegetables of Japan is at the railroad stations on the longer 
lines, for instance, that running from Tokio to Kobe. For native 
consumption there are prepared luncheon boxes of two or three 
stories, provided with the simple and yet embarrassing chop-sticks. 
It is worth the shock it causes one's nerves to invest in these boxes 
and try the vegetable contents. The bits of fish, flesh and fowl 
which one finds therein can be easily separated and discarded, 
upon which there will remain a few delicacies. The pervading 

2 



16 ADDKESS BY 

odor of the box is that of aromatic vinegar. The generous por- 
tion of boiled rice is of excellent quality with every grain well 
softened and distinct, and this without anything else would suf- 
fice for a tolerable meal. In the boxes which have fallen under 
my observation there were sundry boiled roots, shoots and seeds 
which were not recognizable by me in their cooked form. Professor 
Georgeson, 22 formerly of Japan, has kindly identified some of these 
for me, but he says "there are doubtless many others used occa- 
sionally." 

One may find sliced lotus roots, roots of large burdock, lily 
bulbs, shoots of ginger, pickled green plums, beans of many sorts, 
boiled chestnuts, nuts of the gingko tree, pickled greens of vari- 
ous kinds, dried cucumbers, and several kinds of seaweeds. Some 
of the leaves and roots are cooked in much the same manner as 
beet-roots and beet-leaves are by us, and the general effect is not 
unappetizing. The boiled shoots are suggestive of only the tougher 
ends of asparagus. On the whole, I do not look back on Japa- 
nese railway luncheons with any longing which would compel me 
to advocate the indiscriminate introduction of the constituent veg- 
etables here. 

But when the same vegetables are served in native inns, under more 
favorable culinary conditions, without the flavor of vinegar and of 
the pine wood of the luncheon boxes, they appear to be worthy of 
a trial in our horticulture, and I therefore deal with one or two in 
greater detail. 

Professor Georgeson, whose advantages for acquiring a knowl- 
edge of the useful plants of Japan have been unusually good, has 
placed me under great obligations by communicating certain facts 
regarding some of the more promising plants of Japan which are 
not now used here. It should be said that several of these plants 
have ah'eady attracted the notice of the Agricultural Department 
in this country. 

The soy bean {Glycine hispida). This species is known hereto 
some extent, but we do not have the early and best varieties. 
These beans replace meat in the diet of the common people. 

Mucuna (Mucuna capitata) and Dolichos (Dolichos cultratus) are 
pole beans possessing merit. 

Dioscorea. There are several varieties With palatable, roots. 
Years ago one of these was spoken of by the late Dr. Gray, as pos- 
sessing "excellent roots, if one could only dig them." 



GEORGE LINCOLN GOODALE. 17 

Colocasia antiquorum has tuberous roots, which are nutritious. 

ConopJiallus Konjak has a large bulbous root, which is sliced, 
dried and beaten to a powder. It is an ingredient in cakes. 

Aralia cordata is cultivated for the shoots, and used as we use 
asparagus. 

(Enanthe stolonifera and Cryptotcenia Canadensis are palatable 
salad plants, the former being used also as greens. 

There is little hope, if any, that we shall obtain from the hotter 
climates for our southern territory new species of merit. The 
native markets in the tropical cities, like Colombo, Batavia, Sing- 
apore and Saigon, are rich in fruits, but outside of the native 
plants bearing these, nearly all the plants appear to be wholly in 
established lines of cultivation, such, for instance, as members of 
the gourd and night-shade families. 

Before we leave the subject of our coming vegetables, it will be 
well to note a naive caution enjoined by Vilmorin in his work, Les 
Plantes Potageres. 23 

"Finally," he says, "we conclude the article devoted to each plant 
with a few remarks on the uses to which it may be applied and on 
the parts of the plants which are to be so used. Inmany cases such 
remarks may be looked upon as idle words, and yet it would some- 
times have been useful to have them when new plants were culti- 
vated by us for the first time. For instance, the giant edible 
burdock of Japan {Lappa edulis) was for a long time served up- 
on our tables only as a wretchedly poor Spinach, because people 
would cook the leaves, whereas, in its native country, it is only 
cultivated for its tender fleshy roots." 

I trust you are not discouraged at this outlook for our coming 
vegetables. 

Two groups of improvable food-plants may be referred to before 
we pass to the next class, namely, edible fungi and the beverage 
plants. All botanists who have given attention to the matter 
agree with the late Dr. Curtis of North Carolina that we have in 
the unutilized mushrooms an immense amount of available nutri- 
ment of a delicious quality. It is not improbable that other fungi 
than our common "edible mushroom" will by and by be subjected 
to careful selection. 

The principal beverage-plants, tea, coffee and chocolate, are all 
attracting the assiduous attention of cultivators. The first of these 
plants is extending its range at a marvellous rate of rapidity 



18 ADDRESS BY 

through India and Ceylon ; the second is threatened by the pests 
which have almost exterminated it in Ceylon, but a new species, 
with crosses therefrom, is promising to resist them successfully ; 
the third, chocolate, is every year passing into lands farther from 
its original home. To these have been added the kola, of a value 
as yet not wholly determined, and others are to augment the short 
list. 

III. FRUITS. 

Botanically speaking, the cereal grains of which we have spoken 
are true fruits, that is to say, are ripened ovaries, but for all prac- 
tical purposes they may be regarded as seeds. The fruits, of 
which mention is now to be made, are those commonly spoken of 
in our markets, as fruits. 

First of all, attention must be called to the extraordinary 
changes in the commercial relations of fruits by two direct causes : 

(1) The canning industry, and 

(2) Swift transportation by steamers and railroads. 

The effects of these two agencies are too well known to require 
more than this passing mention. By them the fruits of the best 
fruit-growing countries are carried to distant lands in quantities 
which surprise all who see the statistics for the first time. The 
ratio of increase is very startling. Take for instance, the figures 
given by Mr. Morris at the time of the great Colonial and Indian 
Exhibition, in London. Compare double decades of years. 

1845, £886,888. 

1865, £3,185,984. 

1885, £7,587,523. 
In the Colonial Exhibition at Loudon, in 1886, fruits from the 
remote colonies were exhibited under conditions which proved that, 
before long, it may be possible to place such delicacies as the Cher- 
imoyer, the Sweet-cup, Sweet-sop, Rambutan, Mango and Mangos- 
teen, at even our most northern seaports. Furthermore, it seems 
to me likely that with an increase in our knowledge with regard 
to the microbes which produce decay, we may be able to protect 
the delicate fruits from injury for any reasonable period. Meth- 
ods which will supplement refrigeration are sure to come in the 
very near future, so that even in a country so vast as our own, the 
most perishable fruits will be transported through its length and 
breadth without harm. 



GEOBGE LINCOLN GOOD ALE. 19 

The canning industry and swift transportation are likely to di- 
minish zeal in searching for new fruits, since, as we have seen in 
the ease of the cereals, we are prone to move in lines of least re- 
sistance and leave well enough alone. 

To what extent are our present fruits likely to be improved ? 
Even those who have watched the improvement in the quality of 
some of our fruits, like oranges, can hardly realize how great has 
been the improvement within historic times in the character of cer- 
tain pears, apples, and so on. 

The term historic is used advisedly, for there are pre-historic 
fruits which might serve as a point of departure in the considera- 
tion of the question. In the ruins of the lake-dwellings in Switz- 
erland, 24 charred apples have been found, which are in some cases, 
plainly of small size, hardly equalling ordinary crab apples. But, 
as Dr. Sturtevant has shown, in certain directions, there has been 
no marked change of type ; the change is in quality. 

In comparing the earlier descriptions of fruits with modern ac- 
counts it is well to remember that the high standards by which 
fruits are now judged are of recent establishment. Fruits which 
would once have been esteemed excellent, would to-day be passed 
by as unworthy of regard. 

It seems probable that the list of seedless fruits will be mate- 
rially lengthened, provided our experimental horticulturists make 
use of the material at their command. The common fruits which 
have very few or no seeds are the banana, pineapple and certain or- 
anges. Others mentioned by Mr. Darwin as well known are the 
bread-fruit, pomegranate, azarole or Neapolitan medlar, and date 
palms. In commenting upon these fruits, Mr. Darwin 25 says that 
most horticulturists "look at the great size and anomalous devel- 
opment of the fruit as the cause and sterility as the result," but 
he holds the opposite view as more probable, that is, that the ster- 
ility, coming about gradually, leaves free for other growth the 
abundant supply of building material which the forming seed would 
otherwise have. He admits, however, that "there is an antago- 
nism between the two forms of reproduction, by seeds and by buds 
when either is carried to an extreme degree which is independent 
of any incipient sterility." 

Most plant-hybrids are relatively infertile, but by no means 
wholly sterile. With this sterility there is generally augmented 
vegetative vigor, as shown by Nageli. Partial or complete ster- 



20 ADDRESS BY 

ility and corresponding luxuriance of root, stem, leaves and flower, 
may come about in other obscure ways, and such cases are famil- 
iar to botanists. 10 Now it seems highly probable that either by 
hybridizing directed to this special end, or by careful selection of 
forms indicating this tendency to the correlated changes, we may 
succeed in obtaining important additions to our seedless or nearly 
seedless plants. Whether the ultimate profit would be large enough 
to pay for the time and labor involved is a question which we need 
not enter into ; there appears to me no reasonable doubt that such 
efforts would be successful. There is no reason in the nature of 
things why we should not have strawberries without the so-called 
seeds ; blackberries and raspberries, with only delicious pulp ; and 
large grapes as free from seeds as the small ones which we call 
"currants" but which are really grapes from Corinth. 

These and the coreless apples and pears of the future, the stone- 
less cherries and plums, like the common fruits before mentioned 
must be propagated by bud division, and be open to the tendency 
to diminished strength said to be the consequence of continued 
bud-propagation. But this bridge need not be crossed until we 
come to it. Bananas have been perpetuated in this way for many 
centuries, and pineapples since the discovery of America, so that 
the borrowed trouble alluded to is not threatening. First we must 
catch our seedless fruits. 

Which of our wild fruits are promising subjects for selection 
and cultivation? 

Mr. Crozier of Michigan has pointed out 26 the direction in which 
this research may prove most profitable. He enumerates many of 
our small fruits and nuts which can be improved. 

Another of our most careful and successful horticulturists be- 
lieves that the common blueberry and its allies are very suitable 
for this purpose and offer good material for experimenting. The 
sugar-plum, or so-called shadbush, has been improved in many 
particulars, and others can be added to this list. 

But again we turn very naturally to Japan, the country from 
which our gardens have received many treasures. Referring once 
more to Professor Georgeson's studies, 27 we must mention the 
varieties of Japanese apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries and 
persimmons. The persimmons are already well-known in some 
parts of our country, under the name of "kaki" and they will 
doubtless make rapid progress in popular favor. 



GEORGE LINCOLN GOODALE. 21 

The following are less familiar : Actinidia arguta and volubilis, 
with delicious berries ; 

Stauntonia, an evergreen vine, yielding a palatable fruit ; 

Myrica rubra, a small tree with an acidulous juicy fruit ; 

Elceagnus umbellata, with berries for preserves. 

The active and discriminating horticultural journals in America 
and Europe are alive to the possibilities of new Japanese fruits, 
and it cannot be very long before our list is considerably increased. 

It is absolutely necessary to recollect that in most cases varia- 
tions are slight. Dr. Masters and Mr. Darwin have called atten- 
tion to this and have adduced many illustrations, all of which 
show the necessity of extreme patience and caution. The general 
student curious in such matters can have hardly any task more 
instructive than the detection of the variations in such common 
plants as the blueberry, the wild cherry, or the like. It is an ex- 
cellent preparation for a practical study of the variations in our 
wild fruits suitable for selection. 

It was held by the late Dr. Gray that the variations in nature 
by which species have been evolved were led along useful lines, a 
view which Mr. Darwin regretted he could not entertain. How- 
ever this may be, all acknowledge that by the hand of the culti- 
vator, variations can be led along useful lines ; and furthermore the 
hand which selects must uphold them in their unequal strife. In 
other words it is one thing to select a variety and another to assist 
it in maintaining its hold upon existence. Without the constant 
help of the cultivator who selects the useful variety, there comes 
a reversion to the ordinary specific type which is fitted to cope 
with its surroundings. 

I think you can agree with me that the prospect for new fruits 
and for improvements in our established favorites is fairly good. 

IV. TIMBERS AND CABINET WOODS. 

Can we look for new timbers and cabinet woods ? Comparatively 
few of those in common use are of recent introduction. Attempts 
have been made to bring into great prominence some of the excel- 
lent trees of India and Australia which furnish wood of much 
beauty and timber of the best quality. A large proportion of all 
the timbers of the South Seas are characterized by remarkable 
firmness of texture and high specific gravity. 28 The same is no- 
ticed in many of the woods of the Indies. A few of the heavier 



22 ADDRESS BY 

and denser sorts, like Jarrah of "West Australia, and Sabicu of 
the Caribbean Islands, have met with deserved favor in England, 
but the cost of transportation militates against them. It is a fair 
question whether, in certain parts of our country, these trees and 
others which can be utilized for veneers, may not be cultivated to 
advantage. Attention should be again called to the fact that 
many plants succeed far better in localities which are remote from 
their origin but where they find conditions substantially like those 
which they have left. This fact, to which we must again refer in 
detail with regard to certain other classes of plants, may have 
some bearing upon the introduction of new timber trees. Certain 
drawbacks exist with regard to the timber of some of the more 
rapidly growing hard-wood trees which have prevented. their taking 
a high place in the scale of values in mechanical engineering. 

One of the most useful soft-wooded trees in the world is the 
Kauri. It is restricted in its range to a comparatively small area 
in the North Island of New Zealand. It is now being cut down 
with a recklessness which is as prodigal and shameful as that which 
has marked our own treatment of forests here. It should be said, 
however, that this destruction is under protest, in spite of which 
it would seem to be a question of only a few years when the great 
Kauri groves of New Zealand will be a thing of the past. Our 
energetic Forest Department has on its hands problems just like 
this which perplexes one of the new lands of the South. The task 
iu both cases is double : to preserve the old treasures and to bring 
in new. 

The energy shown by Baron von Mueller, the renowned govern- 
ment botanist of Victoria and by various forest departments in 
encouraging the cultivation of timber trees will assuredly meet 
with success ; one can hardly hope that this success will appear 
fully demonstrated in the lifetime of those now living, but I cannot 
think that many years will pass before the promoters of such en- 
terprises may take fresh courage. 

In a modest structure in the city of Sydney, New South Wales, 
Mr. Maiden 28 has brought together, under great difficulties, a large 
collection of the useful products of the vegetable kingdom as rep- 
resented in Australia. It is impossible to look at the collection of 
woods in that Museum or at the similar and more showy one in 
Kew, without believing that the field of forest culture must receive 
rich material from the southern hemisphere. 



GEORGE LINCOLN GOODALE. 23 

Before leaving this part of our subject, it may be well to take 
some illustrations in passing, to show how important is the influ- 
ence exerted upon the utilization of vegetable products by causes 
which may, at first, strike one as being rather remote. 

(1) Photography makes use of the effect of light on chromatized 
gelatin to produce under a negative the basis of relief plates for 
engraving. The degree of excellence reached in modifications of 
this simple device has distinctly threatened the very existence of 
wood engraving, and hence follows a diminished degree of interest 
in boxwood and its substitutes. ' 

(2) Iron, and in its turn steel, is used in ship- building and this 
renders of greatly diminished interest all questions which concern 
the choice of the different oaks and similar woods. 

(3) But, on the other hand, there is increased activity in certain 
directions, best illustrated by the extraordinary development of the 
chemical methods for manufacturing wood pulp. By the improved 
processes, strong fibers suitable for fine felting on the screen and 
fit for the best grades of certain lines of paper are given to us from 
rather inferior sorts of wood. He would be a rash prophet who 
should venture to predict what will be the future of this wonderful 
industry, but it is plain that the time is not far distant when acres 
now worthless may be covered by trees under cultivation growing 
for the pulp -maker. 

There is no department of Economic Botany more promising in 
immediate results than that of Arboriculture. 

V. VEGETABLE FIBERS. 

The vegetable fibers known to commerce are either plant hairs, 
of which we take cotton as the type, or filaments of bast-tissue, 
represented by flax. No new plant hairs have been suggested 
which can compete in any Avay for spinning with those yielded by 
the species of Gossypium, or cotton, but experiments more or less 
systematic and thorough are being carried on with regard to the 
improvement of the varieties of the species. Plant hairs for the 
stuffing of cushions and pillows need not be referred to in connec- 
tion with this subject. 

Countless sorts of plants have been suggested as sources of 
good bast-fibers for spinning and for cordage, and many of these 
make capital substitutes for those already in the factories. But 
the questions of cheapness of production, and of subsequent prep- 



24 ADDRESS BY 

aration for use, have thus far militated against success. There 
may be much difference between the profits promised by a labora- 
tory experiment and those resulting from the same process con- 
ducted on a commercial scale. The existence of such differences 
has been the rock on which many enterprises seeking to introduce 
new fibers have been wrecked. 

In dismissing this portion of our subject it may be said that a 
process for separating fine fibers from undesirable structural ele- 
ments and from resin-like substances which accompany them, is a 
great desideratum. If this were supplied, many new species would 
assume great prominence at once. 

VI. TANNING MATERIALS. 

What new tanning materials can be confidently sought for ? In 
his "Useful Native Plants of Australia," Mr. Maiden 28 describes 
over thirty species of "Wattles" or Acacias, and about half as 
many Eucalypts, which have been examined for the amount of 
tanning material contained in the bark. In all, eighty-seven Aus- 
tralian species have been under examination. Besides this, much 
has been done looking in the same direction at the suggestion and 
under the direction of Baron von Mueller, of Victoria. This serves 
to indicate how great is the interest in this subject, and how wide 
is the field in our own country for the introduction of new tanning 
plants. 

It seems highly probable, however, that artificial tanning sub- 
stances will at no distant day replace the crude matters now em- 
ployed. 

VII. RESINS, ETC. 

Resins, oils, gums and medicines from the vegetable kingdom 
would next engage our attention if they did not seem rather too 
technical for this occasion, and to possess an interest on the whole 
somewhat too limited. But an allied substance may serve to ^rep- 
resent this class of products and indicate the drift of present re- 
search. 

India Rubber. ^ — Under this term are included numerous sub- 
stances which possess a physical and chemical resemblance to each 
other. An Indian Ficus, the early source of supply, soon became 
inadequate to furnish the quantity used in the arts even when the 
manipulation of rubber was almost unknown. Later, supplies 
came from Hevea of Brazil, generally known as Para rubber, 



GEORGE LINCOLN GOODALE. 25 

and from Castilloa, sometimes called Central American rubber, 
and from Maniliot Glaziovii, Ceara rubber. Not only are these 
plants now successfully cultivated in experimental gardens in the 
tropics, but many other rubber-yielding species have been added 
to the list. The Landolphias are amougthe most promising of the 
whole : these are the African rubbers. Now in addition to these 
which are the chief source of supply, we have Willughbeia, from 
the Malayan peninsula, Leuconotis, Chilocarpus, Alstonia, Forster- 
onia, and a species of a genus formerly known as Urostigma, but 
now united with Ficus. These names, which have little signifi- 
cance as they are here pronounced in passing, are given now merely 
to impress upon our minds the fact that the sources of a single 
commercial article may be exceedingly diverse. Under these cir- 
cumstances search is being made not only for the best varieties of 
these species but for new species as well. 

There are few excursions in the Tropics which possess greater 
interest to a botanist who cares for the industrial aspects of plants 
than the walks through the gardens at Buitenzorg in Java and at 
Singapore. At both these stations the experimental gardens lie 
at some distance from the great gardens which the tourist is ex- 
pected to visit, but the exertion well repays him for all discomfort. 
Under the almost vertical rays of the sun, are here gathered the 
rubber-yielding plants from different countries, all growing under 
conditions favorable for decisions as to their relative value. At 
Buitenzorg a well-equipped laboratory stands ready to answer prac- 
tical questions as to quality and composition of their products, and 
year by year the search extends. 

I mention this not as an isolated example of what is being ac- 
complished in Commercial Botany, but as a fair illustration of the 
thoroughness with which the problems are being attacked. It 
should be further stated that at the garden in question assiduous 
students of the subject are eagerly welcomed and provided with 
all needed appliances for carrying on technical, chemical and phar- 
maceutical investigations. Therefore I am justified in saying that 
there is every reason for believing that in the very near f utui'e new 
sources of our most important products will be opened up, and new 
areas placed under successful cultivation. 

At this point, attention must be called to a very modest and 
convenient handbook on the Commercial Botany of the Nineteenth 
Century by Mr. Jackson of the Botanical Museum attached to the 



26 ADDRESS Br 

Royal Gardens, Kew, which not only embodies a great amount 
of well-arranged information relative to the new useful plants, 
but is at the same time, a record of the existing state of things 
in all these departments of activity. 

VIII. FRAGRANT PLANTS. 

Another illustration of our subject might be drawn from a class 
of plants which repays close study from a biological point of view, 
namely, those which yield perfumes. 

In speaking of the future of our fragrant plants we must distin- 
guish between those of commercial value and those of purely hor- 
ticultural interest. The former will be less and less cultivated in 
proportion as synthetic chemistry by its manufacture of perfumes 
replaces the natural by the artificial products ; for example, Couma- 
rin, Vanillin, Nerolin, Heliotropin, and even oil of wintergreen. 

But do not understand me as intimating that chemistry can ever 
furnish substitutes for living fragrant plants. Our gardens will 
always be sweetened by them, and the possibilities in this direc- 
tion will continue to extend both by contributions from abroad and 
by improvement in our present cultivated varieties. Among the 
foreign acquisitions are the fragrant species of Andropogon. Who 
would suspect that the tropical relatives of our sand-loving grasses 
are of high commercial value as sources of perfumery oils ? 

The utility to the plant of fragrance in the flower and the rela- 
tion of this to cross-fertilization, are apparent to even a casual ob- 
server. But the fragrance of an aromatic leaf does not always 
give us the reason for its being. 

It has been suggested for certain cases that the volatile oils es- 
caping from the plants in question may, by absorption, exert a 
direct influence in mitigating the fierceness of action of the sun's 
rays. Other explanations have also been made, some of which 
are even more fanciful than the last. 

When, however, one has seen that the aromatic plants of Aus- 
tralia are almost free from the attacks of insects and fungi, and 
has learned to look on the impregnating substances in some cases 
as protective against predatory insects and small foes of all kinds, 
and in others as fungicidal, he is tempted to ask whether all the 
substances of marked odor which we find in certain groups of plants 
may not play a similar role. 

It is a fact of great interest to the surgeon that in many plants 



GEORGE LINCOLN GOODALE. 27 

there is associated with the fragrant principle a marked antiseptic 
or fungicidal quality ; conspicuous examples of this are afforded 
by species of Eucalyptus, yielding Eucalyptol, Styrax, yielding 
Styrone, Thymus, yielding Thymol. It is interesting to note, too, 
that some of these most modern antiseptics were important con- 
stituents in the balsamic vulneraries of the earliest surgery. 

IX. florists' plants. 

Florists' plants and the floral fashions of the future constitute an 
engaging subject which we can touch only lightly. It is reasona- 
bly clear that while the old favorite species will hold their ground 
in the guise of improved varieties, the new introductions will 
come in the shape of plants with flowering branches which retain 
their blossoms for a somewhat long period, and especially those 
in which the flowers precede the leaves. In short the next real 
fashion in our gardens is probably to be the flowering shrub and 
flowering tree, like those which are such favorites in the country, 
from which the western world has gladly taken the gift of the 
chry s anthemum . 29 

Twice each year of late, a reception has been held by the Em- 
peror and Empress of Japan. The receptions are in the autumn 
and in the spring. That in the autumn, popularly known as the 
Emperor's reception, has for its floral decorations the myriad forms 
of the national flower, the chrysanthemum ; that which is given in 
spring, the Empress' reception, comes when the cherry blossoms 
are at their best. One has little idea of the wealth of beauty in 
masses of flowering shrubs and trees, until he has seen the floral 
displays in the Imperial Gardens and the temple grounds in To- 
kio. 

To Japan and China also, we are indebted for many of the 
choicest plants of our gardens, but the supply of species is by no 
means exhausted. By far the larger number of desirable plants 
have already found their way into the hands of cultivators, but 
often under conditions which have restricted their dissemination 
through the flower-loving community. There are many which 
ought to be widely known, especially the fascinating dwarf shrubs 
and dwarf trees of the far east, which are sure to find sooner or 
later a warm welcome among us. 

X. FORAGE PLANTS. 

Next to the food-plants for man, there is no single class of com- 



28 ADDRESS BY 

mercial plants of greater interest than the food-plants for flocks 
and herds. Forage plants, wild and cultivated, are among the 
most important and highly valued resources of vast areas. No 
single question is of more vital consequence to our farthest west 
and southwest. 

It so happens that the plants on which the pastoralist relies grow 
or' are grown on soil of inferior value to the agriculturist. Even 
soil which is almost sterile may possess vegetation on which flocks 
and herds may graze, and, further, these animals may thrive in 
districts where the vegetation appears at first sight too scanty or 
too forbidding, even to support life. There are immense districts 
in parts of the Australian continent where flo6ks are kept on 
plants so dry and desert-like that an inexperienced person would 
pass them by as not fit for his sheep, and yet, as Mr. Samuel 
Dixon 30 has well shown, these plants are of high nutritive value 
and are attractive to flocks. 

' Relegating to the notes to be published with this address brief 
descriptions of a few of the fodder plants suggested for use in dry 
districts, I shall now mention the salt-bushes of various sorts, and 
the allied desert plants of Australia as worth a careful trial on 
some of our very dry regions in the farthest west. There are nu- 
merous other excellent fodder plants adapted to dry but not parched 
areas which can be brought in from the corresponding districts of 
the southern hemisphere and from the East. 

At an earlier stage of this address, I have had occasion to re- 
fer to Baron von Mueller, whose efforts looking towards the intro- 
duction of useful plants into Australasia have been aided largely 
by his convenient treatise on economic plants. It may be said 
in connection with the fodder plants, especially, that much which the 
Baron has written can be applied mutatis mutandis to parts of our 
country. 

The important subject of introducing fodder plants has been 
purposely reserved to the last because it permits us to examine a 
practical point of great interest. This is the caution which it is 
thought necessary to exercise when a species is transferred by our 
own choice from one country to another. I say, by our choice, 
for whether we wish it or not certain plants will introduce them- 
selves. In these days of frequent and intimate intercommunica- 
tion between different countries, the exclusion of foreign plants is 
simply impossible. Our common weeds are striking illustrations 
of the readiness with which plants of one country make for them- 



GEORGE LINCOLN GOODALE. 29 

selves a home in another. 31 All but two of the prominent weeds 
of the eastern states are foreign intruders. 

There are all grades of persistence in these immigrants. Near 
the ballast grounds of every harbor, or the fields close by woollen 
and paper mills where foreign stock is used, you will observe many 
foreign plants which have been introduced by seed. For many of 
these you will search in vain a second year. A few others per- 
sist for a year or two longer, but with uncertain tenure of the land 
which they have invaded; others still have come to stay. But 
happily some of the intruders, which seem at first to gain a firm 
foothold, lose their ground after a while. We have a conspicu- 
ous example of this in a hawkweed, which was very threatening iu 
New England two years ago, but is now relaxing its hold. 

Another illustration is afforded by a water-plant which we have 
given to the old world. This plant, called in our botanies Ana- 
charis or Elodea, is, so far as I am aware, not troublesome in our 
ponds and water-ways, but when it was carried to England, perhaps 
as a plant for the aquarium, it was thrown into streams and rivers 
with a free hand. It spread with remarkable rapidity and became 
such an unmitigated nuisance that it was called a curse. Efforts 
to extirpate it merely increased its rate of growth. Its days of mis- 
chief are however nearly over, or seem to be drawing to a close, 
at least so Mr. Lynch of the Botanic Gardens in Cambridge, Eng- 
land, and others of my informants think. The history of the plant 
shows that even under conditions which so far as we can see, are 
identical with those under which the plant grew in its home, it 
may for a time take a fresh lease of life and thrive with an un- 
dreamed-of energy. 

What did AnacJiaris find in the waters of England and the con- 
tinent that it did not have at home, and why should its energy be- 
gin to wane now? 

In Australasia one of the most striking of these intruders is 
sweet-briar. Introduced as a hedge plant it has run over certain 
lands like a weed, and disputes every acre of some arable plats. 
From the facility with which it is propagated, it is almost ineradi- 
cable. There is something astounding in the manner in which it 
gains and holds its ground. Gorse and brambles and thistles are 
troublesome in some localities, and they prove much less easy to 
control than in Europe. The effect produced on the mind of the 
colonist by these intruding pests, is everywhere the same. When- 



30 ADDRESS BY 

ever in an examination of the plants likely to be worthy of trial in 
our American dry lands, the subject was mentioned by me to Aus- 
tralians, I was always enjoined to be cautious as to what plants 
I might suggest for introduction from their country into our own. 
My good friends insisted that it was bad enough to have as pests 
the plants which come in without our planning or choice, and this 
caution seems to me one which should not be forgotten. 

It would take us too far from our path to inquire what can be 
the possible reasons for such increase of vigor and fertility in plants 
which are transferred to a new home. We should have to examine 
all the suggestions which have been made, such as fresh soil, new 
skies, more efficient animal friends, or less destructive enemies. 
We should be obliged also to see whether the possible wearing out 
of the energy of some of these plants after a time, might not be 
attributable to the decadence of vigor through uninterrupted bud- 
propagation, and we should have to allude to man}' other questions 
allied to these. But, for this, time fails. 

Lack of time also renders it impossible to deal with the ques- 
tions which attach themselves to our main question, especially as 
to the limits of effect which cultivation may produce. We cannot 
touch the problem of inheritance of acquired peculiarities, or the 
manner in which cultivation predisposes the plant to innumerable 
modifications. Two of these modifications may be mentioned in 
passing, because they serve to exemplify the practical character 
of our subject. 

Cultivation brings about in plants very curious morphological 
changes. For example, in the case of a well-known vegetable the 
number of metamorphosed type-leaves forming the ovary is two, 
and yet under cultivation, the number increases irregularly until 
the full number of units in the type of flower is reached. Professor 
Bailey of Cornell has called attention to some further interesting 
changes in the tomato, but the one mentioned suffices to illustrate 
the direction of variation which plants under cultivation are apt to 
take. Monstrosities are very apt to occur in cultivated plants, and 
under certain conditions may be perpetuated in succeeding gener- 
ations, thus widening the field from which utilizable plants may be 
taken. 

Another case of change produced by cultivation is likewise as yet 
wholly unexplained, although much studied ; namely, the mutual 
interaction of scion and stock in grafting, budding, and the like. 



GEORGE LINCOLN GOODALE. 31 

It is probable that a further investigation of this subject may yet 
throw light on new possibilities in plants. 

We have now arrived at the most practical question of all, 
namelv : — 

In what way can the range of commercial botany be extended? 

In what manner or by what means can the introduction of new 
species be hastened? 

It is possible that some of you are aware of the great amount of 
uncoordinated work which has been done and is now in hand in the 
direction of bringing in new plants. 

The competition between the importers of new plants is so great 
both in the Old World and the New that a very large proportion 
of the species which would naturally commend themselves for the 
use of florists, for the adornment of greenhouses, or for commercial 
ends, have been at one time or another brought before the public 
or are being accumulated in stock. The same is true although to 
a less extent with regard to useful, vegetables and fruit. Hardly 
one of those which we can suggest as desirable for trial has not 
already been investigated in Europe or this country, and reported 
on. The pages of our chemical, pharmaceutical, medical, horticul- 
tural, agricultural and trade journals, especially those of high 
grade, contain a wealth of material of this character. 

But what is needed is this, that the promising plants should be 
systematically investigated under exhaustive conditions. It is not 
enough that an enthusiast here, or an amateur there, should give a 
plant a trial under imperfectly understood conditions, and then re- 
port success or failure. The work should be thorough and every 
question answered categorically, so that we might be placed in 
possession of all the facts relative to the object experimented upon. 
But such an undertaking requires the cooperation of many differ- 
ent agencies. I shall venture to mention some of these. 

In the first place, — Botanic Gardens amply endowed for re- 
search. The Arnold Arboretum, the Shaw Garden, and the Wash- 
ington Experimental Garden, are American illustrations of what 
is needed for this purpose. University gardens have their place 
in instruction, but cannot wisely undertake this kind of work. 

In the second place, — Museums and Laboratories of Economic 

Botany. Much good work in this direction has been done in this 

country by the National Museum and by the department in charge 33 

of the investigation of new plants. We need institutions like those 

3 



32 ADDRESS BY 

at Kew in England, and at Buitenzorg in Java, which keep in close 
toncb with all the world. The founding of an establishment on a 
scale of magnitude commensurate with the greatness and needs of 
our country is an undertaking which waits for some one of our 
wealthy men. 

In the third place, — Experiment Stations. These may, within 
the proper limits of their sphere of action, extend the study of 
plants beyond the established varieties to the species, and beyond 
the species to equivalent species in other genera. It is a matter of 
regret that so much of the energy displayed in these stations in this 
country, and we may say abroad, has not been more economically 
directed 

Great economy of energy must result from the recent change by 
which coordination of action is assured. The influence which the 
stations must exert on the welfare of our country, and the devel- 
opment of its resources is incalculable. 

In the last place, but by no means least, the cooperation of all 
who are interested in scientific matters, through their observation 
of isolated and associated phenomena connected with plants of 
supposed utility, and by the cultivation of such plants by private 
individuals, unconnected with any state, governmental, or aca- 
demic institutions. 

By these agencies, wisely directed and energetically employed, 
the domains of commercial and industrial botany will be enlarged. 
To some of the possible results in these domains, I have endeav- 
ored to call your attention. 



GEORGE LINCOLN GOOD ALE. 33 

Notes. 
The following are among the more useful works of a general character, 
dealing with the subject. Others are referred to either in the text or notes. 
The reader may cousult also the list of works on Economic Botany in the 
catalogue published by the Linnsean Society. 

Select Extra-tropical Plants, readily eligible for industrial culture or 
naturalization, with indications of their native countries and some of their 
uses. By Baron Ferd. von Mueller, K.C.M.G., F.R.S., etc., Govern- 
ment Botanist for Victoria. (Melbourne), 1888. Seventh edition, revised 
and enlarged. 

At the close of his treatise on industrial plants, Baron von Mueller has 
grouped the genera indicating the different classes of useful products in 
such a manner that we can ascertain the respective numbers belonging to 
the genera. Of course many of these genera figure in more than one cate- 
gory. 

He has also arranged the plants according to the countries naturally pro- 
ducing them. 

Useful Native Plants of Australia (including Tasmania). By J. H. 
Maiden, F.L.S., Curator of the Technological Museum of New South 
Wales, Sydney. (Sydney), 1889. 
See also note 19. 

Handbook of Commercial Geography. By Geo. G. Chisholm, M.A., 
B.Sc. London, 1889. 

New Commercial Plants with directions how to grow them to the best 
advantage. By Thomas Christy (London), Christy and Co. 

Dictionary of popular names of the plants which furnish the natural and 
acquired wants of man. By John Smith, A.L.S. (London), 1882. 

Cultivated Plants. Their propagation and improvement. By F. W. 
Burbage. (London), 1877. 

The Wanderings of Plants and animals from their first home. By Vic- 
tor Hehn, edited by James Steven Stallybrass. (London), 1885. 

Besearches into the Early History of Mankind, and the Development of 
Civilization. By Edward B. Tylor, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., 1878. 

1 The number of species of Phasnogainia has been given by many writers 
as not far from 150,000. But the total number of species recognized by 
Bentham and Hooker in the Genera Plantarum (Durand's Index), is 
100, 220, in 210 Natural Orders and 8,417 genera. 

2 Dr. E. Lewis Sturtevant, to whose kindness I am indebted for great 
assistance in the matter of references has placed at my disposal many of 
his notes on edible plants, etc. From his enumeration it appears that if 
we count all the plants which have been cultivated for food atone time or 
another, the list contains 1,192 species; but if we count all the plants 
which "either habitually or during famine periods are recorded to have 
been eaten," we obtain a list of no less than 4,690 species, or about three 
and one-half per cent of all known species of plants. But, as Sir Joseph 
Hooker has said, the products of many plants, though eatable, are not tit 
to eat. 



34 ADDRESS BY 

3 The Folk-Lore of Plants. By T. F. Thiselton Dyer, 1889. 

4 In Dr. Sturtevant's list, 88 species of Gramiuese are counted as food- 
plants under cultivation, while the number of species in this order which 
can be or have been utilized as food amounts to 146. Our smaller number 
20 comprises only those which have been grown on a large scale anywhere. 

5 "In Agricultural Museum at Poppelsdorf, 600 varieties are exhibited." 

6 E. L. S. in letter. Quoted from Seedman's catalogue. 

7 'The best account of the early history of these and other cultivated 
plants can be found in the classical work of De Candolle "Origine des 
JPlantes Cidtivees (Paris) translated in the International series, History of 
Cultivated Plants (N. Y.). The reader should consult also Darwin's Ani- 
mals and Plants under Domestication. 

8 Food-grains of India, A. H. Church, London, 1886, p. 34. In this in- 
structive work the reader will find much information regarding the less 
common articles of food. Of Panicum frumentaceum, Professor George- 
son states in a letter that it is grown in Japan for its grain which is used 
for food, but here would take rank as a fodder plant. 

9 In order to avoid possible misapprehension, it should be stated that 
there are a few persons who hold that at least some of our cereals, and 
other cultivated plants, for that matter, have not undergone material im- 
provement but are essentially unmodified progeny. Under this view, if 
we could look back into the farthest past, we should see our cereals grow- 
ing wild and in such admirable condition that we should unhesitatingly 
select them for immediate use. This extreme position is untenable. 

Again, there are a few extremists who hold that some plants under cul- 
tivation have reached their culminating point, and must now remain sta- 
tionary or begin to retrograde. 

10 Gray's Botanical Text-Book. Vols, i and ii. 

11 A Selection from the Physiological and Horticultural Papers, published 
in the Transactions of the Royal and Horticultural Societies, by the late 
Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq., President of the Hort. Soc. London (Lon- 
don), 1841. 

12 Blustrations of the Manners, Customs and Conditions of the North Amer- 
ican Indians. By George Catlin, London, 1876. A reprint of the ac- 
count published in 1841 of travels in 1832-40. 

"Plate 278 is a party of Sioux, in bark canoes (purchased of the Chip- 
pewas), gathering the wild rice, which grows in immense fields around 
the shores of the rivers and lakes of these northern regions, and used by 
the Indians as an article of food. The mode of gathering it is curious 
and, as seen in the drawing, one woman paddles the canoe, whilst another 
with a stick in each hand, bends the rice over the canoe with one, and 
strikes it with the other, which shakes it into the canoe, which is con- 
stantly moving along until it is filled." Vol. ii, p. 208. 

13 Schliemanu's carbonized specimens exhumed in Greece are said to be 
"very hard, fine-grained, sharp, very fiat on grooved side, different from 
any wheats now known." Am. Antiq., 1880, 66. 

The carbonized grains in the Peabody Museum at Cambridge, Mass., 
are small. 



GEORGE LINCOLN GOODALE. 35 

14 Prehistoric Times as illustrated by Ancient Remains and the manners 
and customs of modern savages. By John Lubbock, Bart. (New York), 
4th ed., 1886. 

"Three varieties of wheat were cultivated by the Lake Dwellers, who 
also possessed two kinds of barley and two of millet. Of these the most 
ancient and most important were the six-rowed barley and small 'Lake 
Dwellers' ' wheat. The discovery of Egyptian wheat ( Triticum turgidum), 
at Wang-en and Robenhausen, is particularly interesting. Oats were cul- 
tivated during the bronze age, but are absent from all the stone age vil- 
lages. Rye was also unknown," p. 216. 

"Wheat is most common, having been discovered at Merlen, Moossee- 
dorf and Wangen. At the latter place, indeed, many bushels of it were 
found, the grains being in large thick lumps. In other cases, the grains 
are free, and without chaff, resembling our present wheat in size and form* 
while more rarely they are still in the ear." 115 species of plants have 
been identified. Heer Keller. 

15 Les Plantes Potageres, Vilmorin, Paris. Translated into English under 
the direction of W. Robinson, editor of the (Loudon) "Garden," 1885, and 
entitled The Vegetable Garden. 

16 1. c, English Ed., p. 104. 

17 According to notes made by Mr. Manning, Sec. Massachusetts Horti- 
cultural Society (Hist. Mass. Hort. Society), the tomato was introduced 
into Salem, Mass., about 1802 by Michele Felice Corne, an Italian painter, 
but he found it difficult to persuade people even to taste the fruit (Felt's 
Annals of Salem, vol. ii, 631) It was said to have been introduced into 
Philadelphia by a French refugee from San Domingo in 1798. It was used 
as an article of food in New Orleans in 1812, but was not sold iu the mar- 
kets of Philadelphia until 1829. It did not come into general use in the 
north until some years after the last named date. 

18 "In Spain and those hot regions, they use to eat the (Love) apples 
prepared and boiled with pepper, salt and olives; but they yield very little 
nourishment to the bodies, and the same nought and corrupt. Likewise 
they doe eat the apples with oile, vinegar, and pepper mixed together for 
sauce to their meat even as we in these Cold Countries do Mustard." 
Gerard's Herbal, 346. 

19 Commercial Botany of the Nineteenth Century. By John R. Jackson, 
A. L. S. Cassell and Company, London, 1890. 

Mr. Jackson who is the Curator of the Museum, Royal Gardens, Kew, 
has embodied in this treatise a great amount of valuable information, well 
ai ranged for ready reference. 

' M Department of Agriculture Beport for 1870, p. 404-428. Only those are 
here copied from Dr. Palmer's list which he expressly states are exten- 
sively used. 

Ground-nut (Apios tuberosa) ; JEsculus Californica ; Agave Americana; 
Nwphar advena ; Praiiie potato (Psoralea esculenta) ; ticirpus lacnslris ; 
Sagittaria variabilis; Kamass-root (Camassia esculenta); Solatium Fend~ 
Itri (supposed by him to be the original of the cultivated potato; Acorns 



36 ADDRESS BY 

of various sort; Mesquite (Algarobia glandulosa) ; Juniperus occidentalis ; 
Nuts of Gary a, Juglans, etc. ; Screw-bean (Strombocarpus pubescens) ; va- 
rious Cactacese ; Yucca ; Cherries and many wild berries ; Gkenopodium 
album, etc. 

Psoralea esct«Zen<a=prairie potato, or Bread-root. Palmer in Agl. Re- 
port, 1870, p. 402. 

The following from Catlin, I. c, i, p. 122 : 

''Corn and dried meat are generally laid in in the fall, in sufficient quan- 
tities to support them through the winter. Thes'e are the principal articles 
of food during that long and inclement season; and in addition to them, 
they oftentimes have in store great quantities of dried squashes, and dried 
'pommes blanches,' a kind of turnip which grows in great abundance in 

those regions These are dried in great quantities and pounded 

into a sort of meal and cooked with dried meat and corn. Great quantities 
are also dried and laid away in store for the winter season, such as buflalo 
berries, service berries, strawberries, and wild plums." 

"In addition to this we had the luxury of service berries without stint; 
and the buflalo bushes, which are peculiar to these northern regions, lined 
the banks of the river and the defiles in the bluffs, sometimes for miles to- 
gether, forming almost impassable hedges, so loaded with the weight of 
their fruit that their boughs everywhere gracefully bending down or rest- 
ing on the "round. This last shrub (Shepherdia) , which may be said to be 
the most beautiful ornament that decks out the wild prairies, forms a strik- 
ing contrast to the rest of the foliage, from the blue appearance of its 
leaves by which it can be distinguished for miles in distance. The fruit 
which it produces in such incredible profusion, hanging in clusters to 
every limb and to every twig, is about the size of ordinary currants and 
not unlike them in color and even in flavor; being exceeding acid, almost 
unpalatable until they aj*e bitten by frost of autumn, when they are sweet- 
ened and their flavor delicious, having to the taste much the character of 
grapes, and I am almost to think w>uld produce excellent wine." Gkorgk 
Catlin's Illustrations cj 'the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the North 
American Indians, p. 72, vol. i. 

For much relative to the food of our aborigines, especially of the west- 
ern coast, consult The Native Races of the Pacific States of North Ameri- 
ca. By H. H. Bancroft (New York), 1875. The following from vol. i, p. 
538, indicates that inaccuracies have crept into the work: "From the ear- 
liest information we have of these nations" (the aiith >r is speaking of the 
New Mexicans), "they are known to have been tillers of the soil; and 
though the implemeuts used and their methods of cultivation were both 
simple and primitive, cotton, corn, wheat, beans, and many varieties of 
fruit which constituted their principal fooil were raised in abundance." 

Wheat was not grown on the American continent until after the landing 
of the first explorers. 

21 Gard. Chron., 1888. 

22 Pickled Daikon, the large radish, often grated. 
Ginger roots — Shoga. 



GEORGE LINCOLN GOODALE. 37 

Beans {Glycine hispida) — many kinds and prepared in many ways. 

Beans (Dolichos cultratus) — cooked in rice and mixed with it. 

Sliced Hasu — Lotos roots. 

Lily bulbs — boiled whole and the scales torn off as they are eaten. 

Pickled green plums (Ume-boshi) — colored red iu the pickle, by the 
leaves of Perilla arguta (Shiso). 

Sliced and dried cucumbers — Kinri. 

Pieces of Gobo — roots of Lappa major. 

Rakkio — bulbs of Allium Bakeri, boiled in Shogu. 

Grated Wasabi — stem of Eutrema Wasabi. 

Water-cress — Midzu-tagarashi (not often). 

Also sometimes pickled greens of various kinds, and occasionally chest- 
nut-kernels boiled and mixed with a kind of sweet sauce. 

Nut of the Ginkgo tree. 

Several kinds of seaweeds are also very commonly served with the rice. 
Prof. C. C. Georgeson in letter. 

23 1. c. Preface in English Edition. 

24 "Carbonized apples have beeu found at Wangen, sometimes whole, 
sometimes cut in two, or, more rarely, into four pieces and evidently dried 
and put aside for winter use They are small and generally re- 
semble those which still grow wild in the Swiss forests; at Robenhausen, 
however, specimens have occurred which are of larger size, and probably 
cultivated. No trace of the vine, the walnut, the cherry or the damson 
has yet been met with, but stones of the wild plum and the Primus paclus 
have been found." Lubbock, I. c, p. 217. 

25 Animals and Plants under Domestication (Am. Ed.), vol. ii, p. 205- 
209. See also an interesting list of Seedless fruits given by Dr. E. Lewis 
Sturtevant. Memoirs of Torrey Botanical Club, N. Y. 

26 American Garden, N. Y. 1800-91. 

27 American Garden, N. Y. 1891. 

28 Useful Native Plants of Australia, by J. H. Maiden, Sydney. 

29 The Flowers of Japan and the Art of Floral Arrangement. By Josiah 
Conder, F.R.I. B. A., Architect to the Imperial Japanese Government. 
Yokohama, 1891. See also two other works by the same author : Theory 
of Japanese Flower-arrangements, and Art of Landscape-gardening iu 
Japan. (1886). 

;, ° Mr. Samuel Dixon's list is in vol. iii (for 1884-85) of the Transac- 
tions and Proceedings and Report of the Royal Society of South Australia. 
Adelaide, G. Robertson, 1886. 

Bursaria spinosa — "a good stand-by," after the grasses dry up. 

Pomaderris racemosa — "stands stocking well." 

Piitosporum phyllaeroides — "sheep exceedingly partial to its foliage." 

Gasuarina quadrivalvis — "tenderness of fibre of wool would be pre- 
vented by it in our finer wool districts." 

Acacias, The Wattles — "value as an astringent, very great," being cu- 
rative of a malady often caused by eating frozen grass. 

Acacia aneura (mulga) — "must be very nutritious to all animals eating 



38 ADDRESS BY GEORGE LINCOLN GOODALE. 

it." This is the plant which is such a terror to the stockmen who have to 
ride through the "scrub." 

Cassia— some of the species with good pods and leaves for sheep. 

The foregoing are found in districts which, are not wholly arid. 

The following are, more properly, "dry" plants. 

Sida petrophila — "as much liked by sheep as by marsupials." 

Dodoncea viscosa — Native Hop-bush. "Likes warm, red, sandy ground." 

Lycium australe — "drought never seems to affect it." 

Kuchia aphylla — "all kinds of stock are often largely dependent on it 
during protracted droughts." 

Bhagodia parabolica — "produces a good deal of foliage." 

Atriplex vesir.aria — "can be readily grown wherever the climate is not 
too wet." 

I have transferred only those which Mr. Dixon thinks most worthy of 

trial. Compare also Dr. Vasey's valuable studies of the plants of our dry 

lands, especially Grasses and Forage plants (1878), Grasses of the arid 

districts of Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado (1886), Grasses of the South 

(1887). 

31 The weeds of German gardens and agricultural lands are mostly from 
Mediterranean regions, but the invasions in the uncultivated districts are 
chiefly from America (such as (Enothera, Mimulus, Budbeckia). Hand- 
buch der Pflanzengeographie, von Dr. Oscar Drude (Stuttgart), 1890, 
p. 97. 

33 The list of economic plants published by the Department in "Washing- 
ton is remarkably full, and is in every way creditable to those in charge. 



